Then Came the Water

Writing Assignment

Teacher says I must write a story. I know you are shocked that a girl would be able to write, since most of us never go to school to learn such things. It’s still somewhat difficult, as writing is still a new experience for me. My name is Mesi, and I have been in school since the water came. For a longtime, I had trouble putting all the letters and words together, but I am so happy to do it now. Writing a story means I must use real paper and a real pencil. I had never even seen such things until the water came. I never expected to have the chance to use something so precious as a pencil and paper. I still practice all my writing in the dirt with a stick before using the pencil. That way I don’t make so many mistakes, and waste the paper.

I may be 14 years old and almost grown up, but it was only four years ago that I began going to school. It’s so wonderful to be able to come to learn at school. There are even hand-washing stations and a real latrine here! All we must do to get clean water is to turn on the tap and the water pours out, clean and clear. Teacher says there are people in Brazil who are so rich they use clean water like what comes from the school taps to clean the walkways around their houses. She says people in America sprinkle water on grass to make it green, only to cut it low to the ground. She says there are people in Trinidad who keep water constantly running in their toilets so they never have to flush them. She says that people in England actually have taps in their houses with cold water and others with boiling water!

Most of her tall tales just make no sense. We laugh when she tells us such things, but I am starting to wonder if some of the stories might actually be true. I saw the difference in my village after the well and treadle pumps became real. I never would have imagined the difference the well made or that it could have been any more real than Teacher’s tall tales of water in other lands.

At first, I did not understand when the strangers spoke of a well, treadle pumps, sanitation, and hygiene. Their words just did not make any sense. It sounded like some sort of magic, but this magic made a really big difference in my life, and for my whole village. Not only can I go to school now, but my family and I have so much food, my father and brothers carry vegetables to sell in the market. I never dreamed we could be so rich we could sell food to buy school uniforms, paper, a pencil, and even a book with the money!

So much in our village has changed; I don’t know where to begin to tell the story. You probably wouldn’t believe it anyway, unless your village got a magic well from Watering Malawi and WorldVision.

Walking for Water

As far back as I can remember I have lived my life walking the trail to the stream to fetch water. As soon as I was big enough, Mom stayed at home while I walked to the stream with my little sisters to fetch water. There was never time for school, as I had to make the journey two or three times a day so that we might have enough water for cooking and drinking. There was never really enough water for us.

Of course, there was no money for school uniforms and supplies, even if there had been enough time. We would sometimes take a break to play in the stream when we arrived there, but we could not get the water muddy. We had to be careful to fill our buckets with water before getting the water any cloudier than it already was. I still have trouble believing just how much cleaner the water from the well is than the stream water. Most of the time, the water had mosquito wigglers in it, even when we were careful to get the cleanest water to take home.

The walk home was always the worst part. Walking two miles toward the stream is hard enough.

The sun is so hot, and since the trail is uneven, there are plenty of rocks to hurt your ankles and feet. Walking home, though, you have to be even more careful, since you can’t afford to spill the water. One day I spilled my water twice before I got halfway home and had to go back to the stream twice to refill my bucket before finishing my first trip. It was a good thing the stream was running well that day, since sometimes there was hardly enough water in it for half the families in my village. At those times we had to walk even farther to get water from somewhere else. On those days, my mother would have to go with me to bring water, as well. That meant less time for cooking and caring for the animals.

Many times I was too weak to carry much water. My family got really thirsty those days. Teacher says something in the water that made me sick. I looked at the water, but couldn’t see much in it that would make me sick. It must have been the mosquito wigglers, since I know they make us sick when they grow big and bite us. Then we get the fever and chills Teacher calls malaria. She says there is medicine to treat malaria, but we could never afford the medicine before our village got the well.

That’s why one of my brothers and two of my sisters died. We have beautiful nets now that we get to sleep under. There is some kind of magic in the nets that kills the mosquitoes when they land on them. Teacher calls it insecticide. My mother and younger siblings got nets a couple of years ago, but the people who gave us nets would not give one to my father or older brothers. They said they were only for women and children under five. We try to share them as well as we can with my father and brothers.

In Malawi, it is the women and girls who walk for water. We take care of the water, and the men and boys take care of the gardens, hunting, fishing, and going to market. After all, it takes so much time to get water for the family, there would have been no time for planting, market, and fishing if the men had to fetch the water. My brothers can’t even balance a water bucket on their heads when they try. I think my family would have died of thirst if my mother had only had sons!

Then Came the Well

When the well came, everything changed.

At first there was a lot of talk with the village elders. Strangers came to our village and talked about water that was under the ground. They said there was a way to get that water out of the ground and they wanted to help our village get that water. They talked about a man named Jesus and a Samaritan woman. Her village had a well, and just like in Malawi, it was the women of her village that would fetch the water for their families. This Jesus talked to the woman and told her about another kind of water that would give life and did not require a long walk to get water.

We were all interested in hearing about this water. There was some confusion, because they were talking about clean water for drinking and cooking, but also about some other water that had to do with God’s love for us. I understood about the drinking and cooking water. I was still confused. It did not make any sense that water could be clean if it came out of the ground. Anyhow, my mother and I were very interested in getting water without making the long trips to the stream every day.

The strangers said they would dig the well and pay some of the men to work on it. There were conditions, however. The women and girls had to take classes on caring for the well, pumps, latrines, and hygiene. Since women in Malawi are in charge of water for their families, it was the women who would be placed in charge of looking after the well, pumps, latrines, taps, and hygiene.

When the project began, it was the first time some of the men in our village had been given a job.

My father had found jobs before, but it had meant traveling several days to find a job in another village while there was no work to be done in our fields during the dry spells. The men worked on digging the well and building a pump house above it with taps and hand-washing stations. Then we learned about washing our hands and how that could help keep us healthier. They taught the women how to maintain the pumps, pipes, and well. You can be sure we paid attention, since having water in the village meant not having to walk eight miles every day to fetch water.

When they turned on the pump and water started flowing through the taps, you could have heard the cheering down at the streambed! Everyone started dancing, hugging, crying, and laughing, all at the same time. We could not believe how clean the water looked, or how good it tasted. It was cold, fresh, and did not have any mosquito wigglers in it. I still don’t understand how water can come out of the dirt and be clean, but I guess it’s kind of like the story about Jesus offering clear water that would give a new life to the one who drank it.

The water from our village well definitely changed my life. That is obvious, because you know I am writing this story. Instead of walking to the streambed, now I turn on the tap and fill my bucket with clean water. I can do that two or three times in the morning before school. Now, however, my neck, shoulders, and back don’t hurt every day from all the walking to carry water home. I also get to use the latrines at the school, as well as the other latrines around the village. We have clean water, and we don’t see as many mosquitoes, since they mostly live down by the stream. There are less flies in our village too, now that we use the latrines we were taught to build.

Teacher says there were some children in America who raised money to bring the water to our village. I don’t see how children could get the money to build a well. They must have a lot of water and sold a lot of vegetables in their market. I can’t imagine how children half a world away could do so much for my village, but they changed my life. Teacher says it has to do with Jesus and his love for all children, even children in Malawi. The children in America knew that Jesus loved us and wanted to help Jesus get water to my village. Even if I don’t understand it all, it has made me really happy.

Instead of spending my days walking to fetch water for my family, a well of living water came to my village. Now I can write stories with a real pencil on real paper. I can learn about this Jesus who spoke to the Samaritan woman about something as important as life-giving water. I am so glad that when I grow up and have children I won’t have to lead my daughters to fetch water at the stream. I will teach them to take care of our well, instead. Maybe by then we will become as rich as those children in America and can help another village dig a well. Then that village can teach their daughters to write stories about days long ago when they spent their time looking for water until a well of living water came to their village. When the living water came to our village, it made all the difference.

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© Copyright 2017 Christopher B. Harbin
http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/christopher-harbin/

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